North Carolina doctor creates treatment to reverse abortions

Meagan Morris is an entertainment and lifestyle journalist living in New York City. In addition to SheKnows, Morris contributes to many publications including The New York Times, Yahoo! News, PopEater, NBC New York and Spinner. Follow he...

Physician claims 137 babies have been born after using his Emergency Abortion Pill Reversal Kit

Having an abortion is supposed to be a permanent decision, but one doctor claims he's pioneered treatments that allow women who take the abortion pill to "reverse" the decision afterward.

Dr. Matthew Harrison, with Novant Health’s Rowan County Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, North Carolina, is the creator behind the "Emergency Abortion Pill Reversal Kit." The kit consists of a series of progesterone shots a woman must take within 72 hours of taking the abortion-causing pill known as RU486 or mifepristone.

"The way the abortion pill works is it essentially starves the baby by blocking the natural hormone that’s in the woman’s body, which is progesterone, thereby breaking the connection between the placenta and the uterus disrupting nutrients to the baby, causing death," Dr. Harrison told Fox 13 News. "This is followed 48-72 hours later with Cytotec which induces labor."

The treatment basically "floods" a woman's system with progesterone so the abortion pill won't work, but it must be taken before the Cytotec.

"We’ve only had one or two women who have called and already taken the second abortion pill, and unfortunately those cases were not successful in reversing because they had already started the labor process," Dr. Harrison said. "Before 72 hours is when we feel like we have the best chance of saving the baby.

To get the kit, a woman must call the hotline listed on this website and a dispatcher will locate the closest doctor with access to the kit. There are now over 300 providers in the United States that have resulted in 137 babies, according to Dr. Harrison. Seventy-six mothers are currently pregnant after getting the reversal treatments.

Dr. Harrison considers himself pro-life, but believes that his kit is giving women another choice about their pregnancies.

"People make mistakes all the time," he said. "We need to be ready for the women who feel they’ve made a mistake, who say, "What have I done?" I want to help save that baby, we need to be ready within an hour's notice to get them the medication they need to reverse the process."